the Eye Under Ash

Blood remembers. Fire chooses. But no crown survives forever. After Veyrhal's gates open onto a wider conspiracy, Jyllithea Gilfmorien follows Corvin's impossible map into the Bloodscale Marches-a volcanic borderland divided by rival crowns, occupied villages, and the Ember Litany's doctrine of measured flame. Each power sees the Emberclaw as proof: of sovereignty, inheritance, sacrifice, or war. Jyllithea refuses every throne offered to her. Yet refusal becomes harder when the mountain wakes, a rival heir turns decisive violence into hope, and Maerun's stolen memories reveal that the Burned Grove was only one experiment in a design spanning worlds. Beneath Bloodscale, an ancient chain binds the Shardsea to a Hollow Realm where mercy means preserving one decision forever. To prevent both worlds from becoming prisons, Jyllithea, Maerun, Caldrion, Brann, Kaul, and the occupied villages must build a power that can act without becoming permanent-and face the cost when every safeguard leaves someone afraid. As the black sun turns and the chain begins to fail, Jyllithea must decide whether power can remain a choice when her blood, her pact, and the dragon beneath the mountain all remember her as a crown.